The garden is untended, clothes hang from the curtain rails in the living room and taxis wait outside the front door.

Paul Hobman can recognise a student house instantly, he says. Hardly surprising, given that on his estate - Badger Hill in York - an estimated one in 10 properties are student lets. On his road, a quarter of a mile from York University, students are thought to occupy at least 11 of the 80 homes.

"I call it balkanisation," says Hobman, who has lived on the estate for 30 years. "We feel we are being swallowed up by the university. On this estate, we have traditionally taken pride in our gardens and the way our homes look. The students have devalued the prices of our properties and they have done absolutely nothing for the aesthetics of the place." Hobman petitioned York council last week to restrict the numbers of houses converted into student lets. He is waiting for a response.

Town-gown tensions may be high in York, but on the whole they are improving, according to universities attending the Guardian higher education summit last week. Dr Eric Cross, dean of cultural affairs at Newcastle University, believes there has been a noticeable improvement over the past five years.

City councillors from across the country may dispute this. They met in Nottingham last week to discuss the impact of universities. Nottingham residents concerned about the increasing number of students living in multiple-occupancy houses have set up the Nottingham Action Group - Nag - to put pressure on the government, universities and councils to improve the quality of life for residents and students.

Dave Trimble, councillor of Dunkirk and Lenton ward in Nottingham, says: "Universities used to have their heads in the sand. Now they have woken up to the fact that it is a good idea to have good relations with their cities or towns."

Institutions are certainly trying harder to improve civic relations. Last November, Southampton University appointed its first community relations officer, and now at least eight universities have one.

Alison Barlow, community relations officer at Loughborough University, says: "Increasingly, universities are recognising the positive role they can play in cities and towns. At Loughborough, we have made our fantastic sports facilities available to the public. Arts and theatre events are also open. But, yes, at some universities there may well still be issues of antisocial behaviour, noise, a concentration of rubbish and large numbers of cars."

The problem is that there is no legislation to ensure that the numbers are kept under control, she says. "Universities are trying to influence the government's agenda to look at the whole area of planning. There is a balance to be had between student accommodation on campus, in residential areas, and in purpose-built private halls of residences."

In York, Hobman worries that the butcher and baker at the top of his road could soon be replaced by a takeaway and video shop. "You don't see children playing around here any more," he says. Badger Hill junior school confirms pupil numbers are declining in the immediate catchment area.

"I'm not anti-student," Hobman says. "The majority are fine, quiet neighbours and the university has actually done a lot of good for York in terms of providing employment. It is the number of student lets that is the problem." He is concerned about the university's plans to take on an extra 3,700 students over the next 10 years, when it would have accommodation for only 3,300 of them.

A York University spokesman says: "We believe residents' fears are misplaced. Rented student accommodation is located in many parts of York and not just Badger Hill. York has four further and higher education institutions whose students are integrated successfully across the city. The university is playing its part in providing student housing. In the last two years alone, we have provided 390 study bedrooms on campus and facilities to accommodate another 248 are under construction."

Veronica King, vice president (welfare) at the National Union of Students, says: "Often students will be criticised for the poor state of the properties they rent, yet the condition of these properties is more often the fault of the landlord. The fact is, students are often a massive boost to a community. Students' unions run excellent community volunteering schemes and do some really important outreach work in local schools and social projects. Improved public transport routes to and from the city to accommodate students moving into the surrounding areas are a real benefit, as is the cash boost to the local economy that students bring."

Cross says the pre-92 universities have started to catch up with their newer peers on civic relations. "In Newcastle, we have addressed this partly by developing big capital projects with the city and its funders, such as the Great North Museum," he says. The museum hopes to attract 300,000 visitors a year to the campus when it opens in 2009. Cross adds: "Campuses tend to be forbidding places to the public and sometimes the intellectual activity inside them is not sufficiently communicated to the local area."

One reason universities may now be giving more attention to civic relations is the cash rewards. The Higher Education Funding Council for England created the Higher Education Active Community Fund in 2002 with £27m to give to universities for their voluntary and community work.

Cross says universities should never expect town-gown relations to be easy. "It's a developing relationship," he says. "There's an element of understanding the other's agenda. Clearly the economic drivers of a university are not going to be the same as those of a city or a regional development agency."